A variety of toys, including stuffed toys, are commonly manufactured in the form of different animal figures such as bears, dogs, cats, dinosaurs as well as other animals. Such toys are mostly popular among children of tender ages either due to their aesthetic appearances or because the feeling of intimacy or security which they induce in such children, particularly at bed time.
Several types of toy animals have been described in various patents and publications, and some are available in the marketplace. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,794,298 described and illustrates a toy bear with illuminated eyes. The toy bear described in said patent has two eyes with a neon tube and electrical circuitry associated with each eye designed to illuminate the eye. The electrical circuit also includes resistors having different resistors values to permit the eyes to blink perceptibly and out of phase from one another.
A more recent patent, i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,171, describes a stuffed toy shaped in the form of a bear which is also useful as a bag for small articles. The stuffed toy bear described in said patent comprises an outer stuffed fabric and an inner frame assembly which is detachably covered by the outer fabric. The inner frame assembly comprises a conical frame member, a cylindrical base member detachably connected at the upper edge to the lower end of the conical frame member and a bottom member detachably connected at the upper edge to the lower edge of the base member. An illumination device is mounted within the inner frame assembly and comprises a power source operatively associated with a lamp for light emitting purpose. A slot and a fastener are provided in the outer stuffed fabric which, when the fastener is opened, permit removal of the inner frame assembly and thus convert the stuffed toy into a useful bag for carrying small articles.
Other patents relating to toy animals which contain illuminating devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 928,744; 1,300,361; 1,773,834; 2,098,166; 3,226,880; 4,585,424 and 4,752,273. Although this list is by no means exhaustive, it is representative of the state of the art, with most of the patents dealing, in one form or another, with toy animals having illuminated and/or blinking eyes. So far as it is known, there are no patents describing stuffed toys with illuminated belly as disclosed herein.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a toy in the form of an animal figure having an illuminated belly.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such stuffed animal toys which are aesthetically pleasing and safe to use by children of tender ages.
The foregoing and other objects and features of the present invention will be better understood form the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings.